12

2013

Frankfurt Book Fair 2013: Four busy days

In the last of our 2013 Frankfurt Book Fair blog posts, Alison Thomson looks back at her four days at the Fair.

It’s day four of the Frankfurt Book Fair – Saturday; local book and publishing enthusiasts, students and families fill the aisles, replacing the thousands of international trade visitors, who’ve conducted multiple meetings across the vast Frankfurt Book Fair Messe site.

The past three days have been very busy here at our stand (Hall 8, stand C1!). Familiar faces have been arriving at the reception to meet and discuss business, close deals and catch up with our Press Sales colleagues, including the Rights Sales Team, who have clocked up around 140 meetings.

Days have been starting at around 8.15am for Gemma and I on the Press reception, in readiness for the Fair’s opening time of 9.00am. We’ve have a constant stream of people requesting information and as a result, we are very intimate with Hall 8.0 (the English-speaking publishing Hall) so much so, that neither of us have yet to go outside to the explore what’s happening with fiction, other Education and Science, Technology, and Medicine exhibitors and we quite fancy the art books, stationery and gifts; We’ve promised ourselves that we’ll do that tomorrow.

Alison T (left) with Gemma Valpy on the Cambridge University Press stand, Frankfurt Book Fair 2013.

Most enquiries have been straightforward, although our listening skills have sometimes been challenged and we’ve had a few interesting requests. Today an Albanian visitor asked if he could have a photograph of the Cambridge stand and insisted I join him in the photograph!

The Fair continues until tomorrow, and as the last few people leave the Fair, one hears the sound of packaging tape ring out across the exhibition halls, the contractors pull up the aisles carpets and within 24 hours, the vast hanger-like spaces are empty once more.

Cambridge University Press stand is located amongst the other English-speaking publisher’s in Hall 8.

Thank you to everyone who came along to meet with us, or just to say a quick ‘hello’. We’ll see you again in April at the London Book Fair!